Under changing climates, many organisms are facing dramatic rangeshifts and expansions. The evolutionary constraints and consequencesaccompanying these geographic shifts are little understood, but arecritical for understanding the processes of adaptation, niche evolution,and generation and maintenance of genetic diversity.

This project will investigate the evolutionary constraints on andconsequences of niche evolution in the blue-tailed damselfly, Ishnuraelegans, which has expanded its range northward in Great Britain by over150 km in the past 50 years. The project involves fieldwork across theUK, and potentially also in Sweden.

Field and genetic (genome-wide SNP) data will be used to test alternativehypotheses about niche evolution and adaptation to novel ecologicalconditions under range expansion. The ideal student shows initiative andindependent thought, but will be provided with full training and supportto ensure a strong basis in evolutionary and population genetic theory,and proficiency in analytical techniques, (e.g.,) genomic, landscapegenetic, and species distribution models.

This position is based within the Ecology research group the Universityof Aberdeen, a cutting-edge research community with many opportunitiesfor collaboration. The student will work primarily under Dr. LesleyLancaster, and further information about her research interests can befound here:http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~lancaster.

Funding Notes:

Applicants for a studentship must have obtained, or be about to obtain,an upper second class UK honours degree, or the equivalent qualificationsgained outside the UK.

Funding is available to UK nationals or those EU nationals who candemonstrate that they have been resident in the UK for three years.

You should apply for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in BiologicalSciences, to ensure that your application is passed to the correctCollege for processing.

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